Archive for February 2013

It never ceases to amaze me the crazy cool things people create with the aid of LEGO Mindstorms! Meet Legonardo and his creator Italian high school teacher Daniele Benedettelli.

Legonardo name is an homage to the Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor, Leonardo da Vinci and according to Mr. Benedettelli’s website ”Is a portrayer robot. It is my fourth generation drawing machine. It is inspired by the work of 18th Century Swiss watch and automata makers Pierre Jacquet-Droz and Henri Maillardet. After reading The invention of Hugo Cabret, I completely redesigned my portrayer into this shape. The drawings are generated by a custom software I wrote, similar to the one used for my first portrayer robot.”

I have a lot of respect for anyone who is game enough to follow their dreams and passion to start their own business in this day and age, especially when it comes to LEGO!

Meet Caroline and Nick Savage who run www.minifigs.me a webstore that allows you to customise your very own minifigures or choose from the pre-designed ones from the world of sport, film and music amongst others.

The Official LEGO YouTube channel has uploaded four TV spots for their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. One for each of the Turtles! Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michaelangelo. Unlike the recent animated adverts for the Chima series these are stop motion videos of our favourite anthromorphs as they battle Shredder, Kraang, Dr. Baxter and Dogpound.

There will also be 5,000 golden minifigures randomly distributed throughout the world. This is the first picture of what the golden minifigure will look like – sandwiched between Trendsetter and Motorcycle Mechanic in the top right!

Alice Finch’s 400,000 brick LEGO Hogwarts is getting a lot of exposure at present and it is no surprise as to why.

The attention to detail in this fan made project which scooped a couple of awards at BrickCon last year is truly amazing. From looking at the second picture in the set, which was taken at BrickCon, you get an idea of how big this really is!

A couple of days ago we posted a link to an interview with Team BTTF. Well they have just unveiled a new CUUSOO project! Doc Brown’s Jules Verne Train which is compatible with LEGO Trains Rail system, has opening Train Wings (External) for Flight/Locomotive Mode, supports LEGO Power Functions and includes 6 Minifigures - Doc Brown, Clara, Jules, Verne and Einstein!

I had been looking forward to visiting the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, Manchester (again) since it was announced that there would be a Star Wars themed miniland exhibit. Although based on the much maligned Episode I: The Phantom Menace the mix of Star Wars and LEGO was enough to persuade me to make the long trip to Manchester to see the exhibit for myself!

To be honest I would have to say I was a little disappointed with the overall exhibit. Theed Palace and the pod race scene look great but the Battle of Naboo is disappointing.

Theed Palace looks amazing! The tan and blueish green bricks used to build the towers, rotundas and copulas look fantastic and although there are a lot of areas which have been sculpted from polystyrene or styrofoam and painted to reflect the cliff edges with shrubs and waterfalls, this only adds to re-create the beauty of the capital of Naboo.

The Palace entrance has the six statues of Naboo philosophers with a group of Battle Droids infiltrating the Palace while the forecourt also has a squadron of Battle Droids on the offensive.

The hangar bay re-creates the scene where Anakin takes off in a Naboo Starfighter while a battle between droids and Naboo Guards ensues!

The Pod Race scene is similarly re-created with a mixture of LEGO bricks and sculpted polystyrene on a sand base. Sebulba and Anakin’s pod racers are on a scalectrix type circuit as they fight it out for the Boonta Eve Classic. The course, which has the remnants of other competitors pods dispersed across it, runs around the Mos Espa Grand Arena.

The Mos Espa Grand Arena is as grand as the name suggests. The minifigures used to populate the arena add to the realism of the setting and you even have Jabba The Hutt and his enturage seated in his private box.

The Battle of Naboo is a bit under-whelming. The Battle of Naboo took place on the grassy plains of Naboo where the Gungan Army fought several thousand Battle Droids who were acompanied into battle by 48 MTT’s and 36 ATT’s. The LEGO recreation has two MTT’s and two ATT’s!

Personally I think the designers/creators of this exhibit would have been best staying clear of this sequence from the film as they would never be able to re-create something as imposing as the battle in the allotted area they had to work with. Having done such a wonderful job with the other two pieces which look amazing, the battle looks like a bit of an after thought. I would have much preferred a set from Coruscant like the Jedi Temple or have the Naboo Space Battle with a multitude of Naboo and Trade Federation starships suspended from the ceiling!

Team BTTF have been talking to LEGOO CUSOO about their success in the summer review, their plans for the future – Biff Tannen’s Ford, micro-scale Hill Valley Courthouse and a UCS version of the Delorian which is remote-control operated.

County Kildare native, David Fennell created Dublin’s famous Heuston Station back in August of 2011 and it hasn’t gone un-noticed. LEGO will be exhibiting the piece, which took 10 months to complete and is made up of 10′s of thousands of LEGO bricks, later this month at LEGO World exhibition in Copenhagen.